History on your doorstep: 1. Brooklands Community Park
Welcome to the last of my top ten favourite historical stories and features, selected from our ‘Greenspace on your doorstep’ directory.
At number 1 is Brooklands Community Park in Surrey…
What you see here is an almost unrecognisable stretch of the ‘world’s first’ 2.8 mile Brooklands ‘banked’ motor racing circuit, which opened in 1907.
Here is an image of the circuit in its heyday:
And, for racing fans, British Movietone News footage from 1930:
During World War I Brooklands closed temporarily to motor racing and Vickers Aviation Ltd. set up a factory constructing and testing military aeroplanes. In 1935, the first flight of the Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft – later famed for its success in the Battle of Britain – took place at Brooklands on the airstrip still visible today.
Brooklands closed permanently to motor racing days before the outbreak of World War 2 in September 1939 when, once again, the site was turned over to war-time production of military aircraft, such as the Vickers Wellington bomber, designed locally in the mid-‘30s by Barnes Wallace of the movie Dambusters fame.
For directions, information and more photographs, go to the Brooklands Community Park entry in ‘Greenspace on your doorstep’.
Warden Mike
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